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Life has been crazy. From my family & my grandmother still unwell, to my certification classes being much harder than I'd thought they be, to doing GAL VIP work as well as other graphic work projects, (and a little bit of dating and flings on the side...), I cannot seem to get time to sit down and make blogging a regular thing!

But! Here I am with a new post :) I'm going to share with you all my beauty updates so far.

I forget if I made a formal post about having stopped applying perms to my hair and such, but it's officially been a full year since I stopped. Last February or March was the last time I had permed my hair, which because of an lolaccident (coldest day of the year, cold water froze up + burning chemicals in my hair), I had to stop perming in order to let my hair grow out.

The damage I received wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been-- luckily I would prep my scalp with oil before perming it so I did not suffer any chemical burns to my scalp~ however, a lot of my hair did become really over-processed, especially around the crown of my head where a bunch of it broke off in the back. It wasn't really noticeable because I have really thick hair, but I didn't want to risk putting any more chemicals on it and making the damage worse.

So since March 2014 I have been on a no-perm fast, and I don't miss the 'creamy crack' one bit.

My new hair regimen only really consisted of a handful of things-- 100% pure edible coconut oil (frankly if you can eat it, then it's good for your hair as well), almond oil, occasionally extra virgin olive oil, and then for washing I would use a dandruff shampoo (which was another major problem for me) along with Creme of Nature's Argan Oil conditioning treatment, occasionally switching out and using a garlic conditioner. I would wash my hair, using my nails to massage and exfoliate my scalp to break up the dead skin, put the conditioner in my hair and let it sit for 30-45 minutes before washing out, and afterwards I would moisturize with whatever oil of choice and then either put my hair in twists or in braids. So for most of the time I either had my hair naturally stretched into soft waves without heat, or I rocked a little twist-out afro or something.

The past 12 months were really fun because I got to learn so much about my natural hair.. how to take care of it in it's natural state, how to prep-style it after washing, and watching it grow pretty quickly! When I first started, I had cut my hair to my collarbone (I didn't cut all of my damaged hair or did a 'big chop', because I value long hair the most). By early February, my hair was down to my breast when fully stretched. It grew about 10 inches or so.

Around December I decided I was going to make a little change and dye my hair. I was craving to do an ash brown for a while and decided that my birthday was the best time to do it! For my birthday I bought some hair extension wefts from Aliexpress (review to come soon!), bought a buttload of dye and bleach, and went to my sister who did the whole process for me. I ended up buying Wella "Color Charm" dyes in 6A (or a 6AA?), and also 7AA. We bleached my extensions (I ended up dyeing it another day), and then we dyed my hair without the use of bleach. After that process, my sister cut all the damaged hair off and this was the result:

My hair is back to past the collarbone stretched. Only the very tips of the ends are remains of my last perm. The color is really nice, though I was worried about it being too close to my scalp color, but eventually new growth came in a bit and showed the difference much better. Funny enough, my roots actually came out lighter while the ends came out darker, though they were setting for the same amount of time and the same color. I only assume that it was become of my ends being treated with perm vs. my virgin new growth.

You see my hair silk-pressed in one photo and freshly washed in the next? Do you see that beauty? ; v; Since my hair was always long and had all the length to it, I couldn't properly determine my curl pattern, but now that it's cut I can definitely see that I am around a 3C-4A (more towards 3C). Despite how ridiculously thick my hair is, my hair is so tamable and I barely get tangles. Since I've had it dyed, I've been only pressing the front-half of my head, while keeping the back coarse, putting it in braids and then wearing my new clip-on half-wig piece and extensions.

Recently I got a few new products for not only my hair, but my skin as well. I'll first start with my local shopping--

I've been buying loads more of the Creme of Nature Argan Oil packets, along with my new Silicone-Mix conditioner. The Silicone-mix conditioner is mainly for my hair extensions, but I've been using it on my hair as well and it has been working wonders. Naturalistas don't seem to like this product too often because it seals your hair and keeps any moisture from getting in it, but using 1:1 mix of both conditioners really freshened my hair, made it ridiculously soft and manageable. The only thing I will say is that the silicone mix has a strong fragrance, but since I'm mixing it with other conditioners, the smell isn't as potent as when used alone.

My other recent product from the local shop has been the Dudu-Osun black soap, which is described as an organic black soap from Africa, made with all-natural ingredients like honey, lemon, and it helps heal acne by lightening the scarring. Since in the last two years I've been breaking out pretty bad due to stress, I decided to get this product. Despite my stance on things like skin-bleaching that got me a bit paranoid, my favorite Youtube beauty gurus (with BEAUTIFUL dark skin) have recommended this product for their daily skincare routine, so I decided to give it a try. So far it has been very effective, and I'll elaborate on it in a future post as well.

I also have this Dark & Lovely Anti-Reversal cream, which I now use after washing to help set my hair for whatever I do to it, whether I blowdry it, or stretch it out naturally, or twist up my hair. It does a pretty good job in keeping the hair from reverting in wet conditions... we'll see how it does in the humid summer months though.

Other than that, I have been picking up some new makeup products, mainly NYX's "Copenhagen" & "Transylvania" liquid lippies which were the rage last October. Literally, they've been sold out for months in my local beauty supply stores, as well as online, but recently I managed to get the colors. They are beautiful dark lippies and they last for quite a while too! Besides that, I have also been purchasing L.A. Girl's Pro.Conceal HD concealer which is another popular product among POC makeup enthusiasts. I've actually been using the lighter shade "Warm Honey" for a while, and then later on Youtube gurus got hooked onto it and have been praising it since. I only just recently got the darker shade "Toast" to aid in contouring. I plan to get an even lighter one for when I want more highlight~ and then last but not least, I got a Victoria's Secret Christmas-edition Beauty Rush lip gloss like I usually do every semi-annual. The photo makes it look a bit dark but in actuality it has this kind of nudy-pink color, and it's also a gradient so the tip-half is more of a darker tone while the other half of the tube is a lighter tone. I just really have a thing for 'wintery' lip glosses that remind me of sugar cookies, cinnamon, brown sugar, or toffee.

Next is my Winter/Spring 2015 Beauty Haul~ I got so much stuff that I have to make a separate post for it xD